<h2>Name</h2>
<p>
The Surah takes its name from the word <em>al-waqi`ah</em> of the very first
verse.
</p>
<h2>Period of Revelation</h2>
<p>
According to the chronological order that Hadrat Abdullah bin Abbas
has given of the Surahs, first Surah Ta Ha was sent down, then Al-Waqi'ah
and then Ash-Shu`ara'(Suyuti: <em>Al-Itqan</em>). The same sequence has been reported from Ikrimah (Baihaqi: <em>Dala'il an Nubuwwat</em>).
</p>
<p>
This is supported also by the story that Ibn Hisham has related from
Ibn Ishaq about the affirmation of the Faith by Hadrat Umar (may Allah
be pleased with him). It says that when Hadarat Umar entered his
sister's house, Surah Ta Ha was being recited. Hearing his voice the
people of the house hid the pages of the Qur'an. Hadrat Umar first
seized his brother-in-law and then his sister rose in defense of her
husband, he hit her also and wounded her on the head. When Umar saw
blood on his sister, he was sorry for what he had done, and said to
her: "Show me the manuscript that you have concealed so that I may see
what it contains." The sister said: "You are unclean because of your
polytheism: <em>wa anna-hu la yamassu-ha ill-at-tahir</em>: "Only a clean person can touch it." So, Hadrat Umar rose
and washed himself, and then took up the manuscript to read it. This
shows that Sarah Al-Waqi'ah had been sent down by that time for it
contains the verse: <em>La yamassu hu ill al mutahharun</em>; and it had been
established historically that Hadrat Umar embraced Islam after the
first migration to Habash, in the fifth year of the Prophethood. 
</p>
<p>
<h2>Theme and Subject Matter</h2> 
<p>
Its theme is the Hereafter, <em>Tauhid</em> and refutation of
the Makkan disbelievers' suspicions about the Qur'an. What they
regarded as utterly incredible was that Resurrection would ever take
place, then the entire system of the earth and heavens would be upset,
and when all the dead would be resurrected and called to account,
after which the righteous would be admitted to Paradise and the wicked
cast into Hell. They regarded all this as imaginary, which could not
possibly happen in actual fact. In answer to this, it was said: "When
the inevitable event will take place, there will be none to belie its
happening, nor will anyone have the Power to avert it, nor prove it to,
be an unreal happening. At that time all peoples will be divided into
three classes: (1) The foremost in rank and position; (2) the common
righteous people and (3) those who denied the Hereafter and persisted
in disbelief and polytheism and major sins till the last." How these
three classes of the people will be rewarded and punished has been
described in detail in vv. 7-56. 
</p>
<p>
Then, in vv. 57-74 arguments have
been given, one after the other, to prove the truth of the two basic
doctrines of Islam, which the disbelievers were refusing to accept,
viz. the doctrines of <em>Tauhid</em> and the Hereafter. In these arguments,
apart from every thing else that exists in the earth and heavens,
man's attention has been drawn to his own body and to the food that he
eats and to the water that he drinks and to the fire on which he cooks
his food, and he has been invited to ponder the question : What right
do you have to behave independently of, or serve any other than, the
God Whose creative power has brought you into being, and Whose
provisions sustain you And how can you entertain the idea that after
having once brought you into existence He has become so helpless and
powerless that He cannot recreate you once again even if he wills to?
</p>
<p>
Then, in vv. 75-82 their suspicions in respect of the Qur'an have been
refuted and they have been made to realize how fortunate they are that
instead of deriving any benefit from the great blessing that the
Qur'an is, they are treating it with scant attention and have set only
this share of theirs in it that they deny it. If one seriously
considers this matchless argument that has been presented in two brief
sentences about the truth of the Qur'an, one will find in it the same
kind of firm and stable system as exists among the stars and planets
of the Universe, and the same is the proof of the fact that its Author
is the same Being Who has created the Universe. Then the disbelievers
have been told that this Book is inscribed in that Writ of Destiny
which is beyond the reach of the creatures, as if to say "You think it
is brought down by the devils to Muhammad (peace and blessings of
Allah be upon him), whereas none but the pure angels has any access to
the means by which it reaches Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah
be upon him) from the well guarded Tablet." 
</p>
<p>
In conclusion, man has
been warned, as if to say: "You may brad and boast as you like and may
shut your eyes to the truths in your arrogance of independence, but
death is enough to open your eyes. At death you become helpless: you
cannot save your own parents; you cannot save your children; you
cannot save your religious guided and beloved leaders. They all die in
front of your vary eyes while you look on helplessly. If there is no
supreme power ruling over you, and your this assumption is correct
that you are all in all in the world, and there is no God, then why
don't you restore to the dying person his soul?Just as you are
helpless in this, so it is also beyond your power to stop Allah from
calling the people to account and mete out rewards and punishments to
them. You may or may not believe it, but every dying person will
surely see his own end after death. If he belongs to those nearest to
God, he will see the good end meant for them if he be from among the
righteous, he will see the end prepared for the righteous; and if he
be from among the deniers of the truth, he will see the end destined
for the criminals.
</p>

